The HTC One X is HTC's new flagship Android smartphone. Just announced, we had the chance to play with the phones before launch and at the launch event at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, to bring you a quick review of the new superphone.

In the hand the 4.7-inch handset is obviously large. To keep things from getting too bulky, HTC have turned to polycarbonate for the bodywork, rather than metals. Like the Nokia Lumia 800, it has a tactile feel, although HTC has polished the sides of the device for a little premium shine.

The HTC One X launch colours include white and grey, although we're sure there will be exclusive colours in the future too. The white does look nice, but we can't help feeling that it will get rather grubby with time.

Nokia also do a white polycarbonate version of the Nokia Lumia 800 and told us that staining was potentially a problem with a matte finish (hence theirs is gloss), but time will tell.

The HTC One X display is Super LCD and gives you a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution and measures 4.7-inches on the diagonal. It offers great viewing angles too and from what we've seen, impressive colour reproduction.

The attention to detail is impressive. HTC has used microdrilling to form the speakers rather than using a traditional grill, something that Apple and Nokia have been doing for a couple of years.

The result is a handset that feels solid, durable and light, but also packs in just about all the specs you might want. The characteristic end pieces provide a break in the bodywork and are reminiscent of previous HTC designs, although this is notably thinner than previous devices.

It runs on Android 4.0 and comes with HTC Sense 4.0. The most dramatic change in HTC Sense 4.0 is the homescreen, with an arrangement closer to native Ice Cream Sandwich than HTC has even gone for before.

We've not had the chance to explore everything that the HTC One X and HTC Sense 4.0 has to offer, but it's still very much HTC Sense, with plenty of modifications from native Android.

Some highlights, however, include the camera. The 8-megapixel sensor is backside illuminated and the lens is a 28mm f/2.0 unit, so it should cope better with low light conditions than previous models. There is also the HTC ImageChip, which processes RAW data to enhance it before it becomes a JPEG and promises better results as a consequence.

Of course, we haven't been able to test the camera performance, but we've been able to play with the tweaked interface, which is leaps and bounds ahead of what you get in Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus.

The new camera interface offers two buttons, so you can go directly to video or still capture and you can now also snap photos while recording video. Another new feature is instant burst shooting: pressing and holding the shutter button will keep capturing photos, which is pretty impressive.

The HTC One X processor is the quad core Tegra 3 chipset and the performance seems snappy from the time we've spent with it. You get 32GB of internal memory, but no option for microSD expansion. HTC have also chosen to use micro SIM in this handset. The HTC One X battery is a 1800mAh unit.

Skinny, powerful, and ticking all the boxes on the spec sheet, the HTC One X hit all the right points, but it still very much HTC in terms of design. There is a lot more to explore and we'll bring you all the detials in our HTC One X review in the not too distant future.